A street beggar has been noticed by a young Italian boy who points out the poor kneeling body to his parent. A stick lies on the ground with a paper cup to collect any spare change offered and a cash customer stands entering his pin number into the automated bank dispenser, his back to the underclass of society. This has become normal for what has become the modern face of Italian society in this once-grand medieval city. The city lies on the River Arno and is known for its history and its importance in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, especially for its art and architecture. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages.
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